Twitter in April 2016 signed a deal to stream nearly a dozen Thursday night NFL football games during the regular season. A year later, Amazon opened its wallet and secured the streaming rights to the block of games, leaving some to question whether Twitter's streaming ambitions had gone up in smoke.
On Monday, the microblogging platform assured onlookers that it was still very much interested in streaming.
During its first Digital Content NewFronts presentation, Twitter announced a dozen streaming deals that'll bring live original programming, games, syndications, events and more to the platform.
On the news front, Twitter has agreements to deliver content from Bloomberg Media, The Verge, BuzzFeed News and Cheddar. If it is sports you're after, Twitter will soon have streams from the WNBA, MLBAM, STADIUM, The Players' Tribune and PGA TOUR. Finally, in the entertainment category, Twitter now has deals with LiveNation, IMG Fashion and Propagate.
Content schedules vary between partners. The Verge, for example, will broadcast a weekly gadget show hosted by Nilay Patel while BuzzFeed News will put on a news and current events show each morning. Others, like LiveNation, will vary depending on when certain events take place (their first concert series launches May 13, FYI).
Although many of the partners are recognizable names, none come close to being as big of a draw as the NFL. Nevertheless, investors responded positively as share value in Twitter climbed more than six percent on the news.